Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Longest Tenured Dodger…
November 9, 2008 at 7:50 am | Posted in Jonathan Broxton | 6 Comments…turned 24 years old five months ago.
That’s right, with the likely departures of Jeff Kent, Brad Penny, & Derek Lowe, there’s only two Dodgers left from the 2005 debacle who are likely to be on the 2009 club: Broxton and Hong-Chih Kuo. And even Kuo’s only 27 years old! Broxton made his debut on July 29 of that year, while Kuo walked two of the first three batters he saw on September 2 and didn’t get into another game for 16 days. Amazing, isn’t it? A 24-year-old is most likely going to be the longest-serving Dodger.
Fortunately, 2006 saw the debuts of Russell Martin, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Chad Billingsley (sidenote: what a year!), so hopefully we won’t be saying similar things in ten years.
(Yes, I know Yhency Brazoban pitched for the Dodgers in 2004. I also know he’s pitched in just eleven MLB games in the last three years, and since he’s arbitration-eligible, may get non-tendered. He doesn’t count here. Jason Repko made his Dodger debut earlier in 2005 than Broxton, but is in the same injury-prone, arbitration-eligble, possible non-tender situation as Brazoban.)
* Over at MVN, check out their 2009 plan for the Dodgers. It’s well thought-out, and there’s a trade with Tampa that I haven’t heard before, which could be intriguing. That said, if we go with the middle infield plan laid out there, it might be grounds for me to stop following the Dodgers entirely. This is what I’d said back in June when the Eckstein rumors were flying around:
David Eckstein, Blue Jays
Profile: I hate myself for even bringing him up. But the Blue Jays are in dead last in the AL East and just fired their manager, so they’re clearly going nowhere fast. For a GM who loves veterans like Colletti does, you don’t think he’d love to add his “grittiness” or “hustle” or whatever euphemism you want to use for “short, modestly talented white guy”? Of course he would.
Pros: Let’s see… “pros”. Well… he’s cheap? Only signed for 2008 at $4.5 million, and no commitments afterwards. Actually, he’s not as terrible as I would have thought; while he has zero power, the .361 OBP he has so far this year is pretty good.
Cons: The ramifications of Juan Pierre and David Eckstein hitting 1-2 in a lineup may end the free world as we know it.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness 
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Flipper Arm?!? Craig Counsell?????? And Slap! Egads, we will be so gritty, we could pass for sandpaper. One gritty player is awful, but not terrible. Two is asking for a .400 record and three is guaranteeing the first pick in the draft.
There are better options than either Counsell and/or Eckstein. I know the Tigers won’t offer arbitration to Renteria and I would take his backsliding performance over Eckstein’s in a NY minute. Even Berroa sounds better than Eckstein. Egads!
Ethier for Sonnanstine and Bradford. Ya…nope. If we are gonna move Ethier, we get better than a soft-tosser and a guy still making way too much money for his talent level. That trade is a serious non-starter. With the exception of resigning Manny, signing Crede and Pedro, there isn’t much there that gets me excited.
Comment by grabarkewitz— November 9, 2008 #
Mike, can you explore the idea of signing both C.C. Sabathia & Manny Ramirez while accepting the idea that we will have to settle for replacement-level players at our remaining holes?
If we could sign both Sabathia and Ramirez, would our team (statistically) be better off if we had to settle for scrubs at 3B & SS? In other words, is the drop from a Furcal to a Nick Punto and a drop from a Blake to a Joe Crede that big that Sabathia/Ramirez won’t make up for it?
Comment by TheSleaze— November 9, 2008 #
Corey, that’s a really interesting idea. I’m currently writing something else for tomorrow right now, but I’ll see if maybe I could do something along those lines this week. Thanks for the idea.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— November 9, 2008 #
Corey, that’s a really interesting idea. I’m currently writing something else for tomorrow right now, but I’ll see if maybe I could do something along those lines this week. Thanks for the idea.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— November 9, 2008 #
I’d rather have Manny and Peavy on the Dodgers.
Comment by Dodger fan— November 11, 2008 #
Comment by MSTI.com’s 2008 In Review: Relief Pitchers « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— November 17, 2008 #